Countdown to the 110th Boston Marathon

11-22-05
This is my first posting, hopefully of many!! I will be using the website as a way to keep those interested up-to-date on my marathon training, fundraising activity, including fun facts and photos.
I will be running in the 110th Boston Marathon as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team (DFMC). This will be my firstmarathon and I am very excited to be part of this historical race steeped in tradition, but my personal quest, no matter how difficult, pales in comparison to the challenges facing cancer patient’s everyday. It’s from this perspective that I choose to become part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team and in doing so myself and 500 other runners are raising money to benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research located at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Twenty-one weeks left until the 110th Boston Marathon starts. This is kick off week, my training officially started on Monday. This past week I had a cold, so today will be a hard run especially in the rain but it's nice to get out of the office for an hour. I have been taking Monday's as a rest day, due to having long runs on Sunday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday's I've been running during my lunch hour, which allows me to get in anywhere from three-six miles a day. I start out from State Street building located at one Lincoln Street, and run through the Commons onto Beacon Street, then across to the Charles River near the Half-Shell, this is a nice run along the river, crossing the Mass Ave bridge and running along the Cambridge side until I reach the Longfellow Bridge, returning to the city along Cambridge Street!
This Saturday I went to a Dana-Farber first timers meeting at the Mount Auburn Club in Watertown, this was a great way to meet my fellow teammates, we meet at 8:30 and went for a five mile group run along the Charles. We also got to meet our coach, Jack Fultz (the 1976 Boston Marathon winner) he prepped us for the upcoming season and talked a little about training. I met some wonderful people at my table, including a women who was participating in the DFMC in honor of her three year old daughter, who is fighting leukemia, she spoke very highly of Dana-Farber and all they the great things they've done. Another person in the group running is a Barr researcher, who is currently working on a cure with the donations made for last years DFMC participant's and one woman running was currently undergoing chemotherapy. These are just a few of many reasons to support Dana-Farber Cancer research. If you can please contribute towards my goal to raise $5,000 dollars by April 17, 2006 and help us reach the DFMC team's overall goal of $3.6 million for basic cancer research.

With great appreciation and many steps to go! Thank you for helping Dana-Farber reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.



Ryan